School board, residents clash over principal's fate

EAST HANOVER TWP. Close to 200 parents, many with their children
in tow, came out in a massive demonstration of support last
Thursday for Frank J. Smith School Principal Christopher Judge whom
they feared had been fired by the Board of Education that very day.
Despite assurances from the board that no such thing had happened
or was about to happen, the residents stayed on the matter for
almost three hours, peppering board members with angry questions,
offering mock laughter when they heard something they didn't like
and vigorous applause when someone made a specific bon mot in
support of the principal, who has been at the grade K-2 school for
one year.

Children carried signs in support of Judge and several times
some of the children marched around the Central School auditorium
with banners flying high.

The board was scheduled to meet for its regular meeting in the
cramped board off ices on School Street as it does usually. More
than 100 people tried to cram their way in but Fire Chief George
Busold told everyone the overcrowding was a fire hazard and they
would have to leave. At that point Board President Mario Zinico la
entered and offered to make a statement he said would clear the
room. The statement was, "There are rumors going around that
Principal Judge will be terminated tonight," he said. "There is no
substance to those rumors. Mr. Judge has not been fired."

But his words did nothing to douse the flames. Parents began
shouting out that Judge, 34, received a so-called "Rice letter,"
the legal name given to a formal letter handed to a staffer when he
or someone he knows could face dismissal.

Zinicola did not answer the question directly and it became
clear none of the parents was going to move. Residents soon began
chanting "We want Judge, we want Judge," that escalated in
volume.

With that, the board decided to move the meeting to Central
School and a parade of parents, children and board members made the
10-minute walk from the board offices to the school's
auditorium.

At the meeting, parents said Judge was being persecuted for
standing up to board members who had asked for special favors,
specifically board member Jeral Zarra , who has a kindergarten
student in Frank J. Smith. The parents claimed Zarra had asked for
a favor for his child, which Judge refused to grant.

At first Judge would only say that a board member had approached
him with such a request but later during the meeting he noted it
was indeed Zarra who had made the request for a certain
class.

Zarra defended what had happened, calling it a misunderstanding
and a miscommunication.

Zinicola noted that there is nothing unusual about a parent
asking for the help of a principal or teacher when it comes to
their children. "It happens all the time," he said.

Zinicola said there was no retribution being sought. Zinicola
noted Judge, who previously had been principal at Brooklake and
Briarwood schools in Florham Park, had been approved unanimously
for rehire at the previous board meeting and that Judge and the
board were in a standard negotiation to determine salary based on
skills, job performance and experience.

But no matter how hard he tried to assure residents Judge's job
was safe the residents weren't buying it.

Judge himself fanned the flames by saying he had received word
from the teachers' negotiator that during contract negotiations the
word was "it does not look good" for Judge to be retained. "I was
told there was a very strong possibility I would not be rehired; it
has put my family through hell," Judge told the boa rd.

During the meeting, Judge told the board he had also heard a
negative comment from Superintendent Larry Santos during
negotiations that led him to believe he would not be
rehired.

What gave the whole meeting an air of unreality was that the
board was saying one thing Judge would be rehired, there was never
a move to terminate him while the parents were saying something
else Why the Rice letter? Why the discouraging comments from the
teachers' negotiator?

It eventually became clear that the gray area was the contract
negotiation itself, which the board, under law, is not allowed to
discuss. Judge was discussing certain aspects of the negotiation
but the board would not bite at his words. Boa rd Attorney Joseph
Morano got into several verbal tussles with residents when they
tried to extract information about the negotiations.

The confrontational mode of the evening was best represented by
squabblings between resident Michael Pichowicz, who is also an
attorney, and the board. Pichowicz was the first to speak before
the board and laid out the groundwork of why the residents were
concerned. At one point he identified himself as the former
attorney for the Harrison Board of Education, which brought a
response from Zinicola .

"Do you want to continue giving your credentials or do you want
to say something?" Zinicola asked.

At another point, Pichowicz told the board it shouldn't rehire
Judge for a year, it should offer him a five year-contract, a
statement that brought in the board 's attorney with both barrels
blazing. "If you're a school board attorney then you would know you
can't hire a principal for five years," Morano said.

Praise For Judge

For the most part, the meeting was about parents offering
testimonials on what an impressive principal Judge had been in his
first year.

"He's been wonderful," said Ria Ruine. "He knows all the kids'
names by heart, he comes out to meet them at the school bus. He's
the best.

"He is a principal from the heart," said Charlie Schaafsma, who
has a second grader at the school.

Resident Thomas Fahey called Judge "a caring and compassionate
guy who is every day greeting kids as they get off the bus and
saying good-bye to them when they go home."

Patricia Corchoran of River Road said the board needs to be
encouraging to Judge . "I want him happy to be coming back," she
said.

By the end of the meeting, even board members had praise for
Judge. "He is welcomed and wanted back," said Zarra. "I have a
child in the school who loves Mr. Judge."

After the meeting, Judge said he was pleased by what he had
heard. "I want to thank those who came out, they really helped me
through this," he said.

Zinicola said after the meeting he could understand the
audience's frustration but defended the board. "It's a frustration
for the board to hear such negativity without anyone evaluating
what we did all year," Zinicola said.

Zinicola heads a board that is virtually all new from three
years ago. Zinicola said the new board members had a goal to
re-establish educational programs that had been gutted by the
previous board whose only interest was to keep taxes down
.

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